News: Dance Umbrella 04

Thursday 11 March 2004

The UK’s leading contemporary dance festival has announced some of the highlights of this years programme, which runs from 5 October to 27 November.
The New York based Mark Morris Dance Group brings *The Hard Nut*, a modern take on Tchaikovsky’s classic, The Nutcracker, to Sadler’s Wells from 19 – 27 November. This will be the London premiere of the work and is set to make an interesting comparison with Matthew Bourne’s version of the classic, which has been Sadler’s Wells’ Christmas show for the past two years. The Hard Nut was created in 1991 and so far has only been performed in California and New York City. It is set in the 1960’s and has been described as ‘at once a send up of conventional Russian ballet and an homage’.
Another highlight of this year’s Dance Umbrella festival is the UK premiere of Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s Split Sides at The Barbican (5 – 9 Oct) as part of BITE:04. Following the sell-out success of the Dance Umbrella commissioned Merce Cunningham Dance Company Anniversary Events at Tate Modern ending DU2003, Split Sides will feature music by Radiohead and Sigur Ros. The company will also tour the UK for the first time. Dance Umbrella 2004 also plans to present the festival debuts of Chinese born – New York based Shen Wei, Compagnie Philippe Decoufle and choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, all presenting new work to the UK, as well as Saburo Teshigawara’s reprised solo and new work from UK choreographers Yolande Snaith, Siobhan Davies, and *Carol Brown*Venues under the Umbrella this year include Sadler’s Wells, The Place, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican, The Linbury Studio and the return of Riverside Studios to the festival line up.
Further details will be announced in the coming months<?xml:namespace prefix = o />